Acharya Prashant responds to a question about why he advises women to earn, even though ancient goddesses like Sita and saints like Meera Bai did not. He begins by stating that two things need to be understood. First, he has said that no person should live in dependence on another. The very purpose of life is freedom, and one cannot attain internal freedom if one is externally dependent on someone else even for their daily bread. He applies this specifically to women, who in the first part of their lives are dependent on their fathers, then on their husbands, and often in the last phase of their lives, on their sons. He states that this is not right at all, especially being dependent on the husband with the justification that a woman's job is to stay at home and run the household. Acharya Prashant clarifies that he repeatedly encourages women to earn so that they do not have to ask for their daily bread from anyone. There are other reasons as well. A person who is constantly sitting at home is essentially imprisoned. Their contact with the world is severed, and they lose touch with how the world actually functions. When you go out and work, you get news of the world. You understand what money is, how the economy works, what business is, how institutions and companies are managed. When you learn these things, your mind also develops. For these reasons, he advises against being dependent on the husband. Addressing the example of Sita, Acharya Prashant points out that Sita had Shri Ram, who was an ideal husband and not an ordinary man. A husband who is an ordinary worldly person will have selfishness and greed, and will exploit a dependent wife. He asks the questioner if their husband is like Shri Ram, who fought the superpower of his time, Lanka, with an army of tribal people to rescue Sita. He dismisses the comparison, stating that today's woman is not Sita, nor is her husband Ram. Using such examples to justify one's own situation is a delusion of the ego. He says that the ego, to justify its arguments, will immediately bring up examples of Radha-Krishna or Ram-Sita. He questions the questioner's husband's character, asking if he is like Shri Ram, and points out the absurdity of comparing oneself to an incarnation of Vishnu. Similarly, regarding saints like Meera Bai, he explains that either a woman should have a husband like Shri Ram, in which case he would not advise her to work, or the woman herself should be like Meera Bai. Meera had become someone who could not be enslaved because she was no longer dependent on anyone, having become internally dependent on Krishna. For such a person, who has reached a high level of consciousness and is no longer a slave to anyone, he would not advise them to earn. His advice to earn is for the ordinary person, over whom hangs the sword of slavery if they do not earn. The advice is for those who will be forced into servitude if they do not earn. He reiterates that the entire spiritual path is for liberation (Mukti). The highest ideal is liberation, and we must move towards it. But until we are liberated, we should not give ourselves the false consolation that we can behave like liberated beings without being liberated. A slave who behaves like a free person only ensures their slavery is established forever.
